An appropriate understanding of the Islamic view of neighborliness requires examination of the main teachings of Islam. The Arabic word Islam derives from the root “salaam,” which literally means peace, submission, and obedience. Accordingly, the goal of an Islamic life is to attain peace and happiness in this world as well as in the hereafter by faith and by obedience to God. Achievement of peace and harmony within one’s self, in the community and all over the world is the essential objective of Islamic teachings. Islam is not a new religion. It is, in essence, the same message and guidance which God revealed to all prophets, as indicated by the following Qur’anic verse: 

Say, we believe in God and that which has been revealed to us, and that which was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes and that which was given to Moses and Jesus and to other prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to him we submit. (Al Imran 3:83)

There are two main sources of Islamic teachings: the Qur’an, which is the revealed word of God, and the prophetic traditions of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. The principles of neighbor relationships that we will discuss below are based on these two main sources.

In Islam, the rights which people have over one another are considered extremely important. According to Islamic teachings, God can forgive all sins except the ones that are related to the rights of others. These rights are categorized and classified in a very detailed way. These include the rights of family members over one another, the rights of relatives, the rights of community members and the rights of neighbors over one another.

Definition of Neighbors in Islam

In Arabic, the word neighbor (jaar) refers to believers and unbelievers, religious and irreligious, friends and enemies, foreigners and fellow countrymen, those who treat you well and those who would do you harm, relatives and strangers, those whose houses are near yours as well as those who are further away. In the fourth chapter of the Qur’an, entitled Nisa (Women) God commands us to Serve God, and join not any partners with Him; and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, . . . (Nisa 4:36).

There are three definitions of neighborhood in the Muslim tradition. According to Al-Uza’i and Ibn Shihab as recorded in the authentic prophetic traditions of Bukhari, the definition of neighbor includes “forty houses in each direction, (right, left, front, and back).” Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and the fourth caliph, is reported to have said, “Whoever hears the call (for prayer) is a neighbor.” Some Muslim scholars have declared that whoever lives with a man in a locality or a city is a neighbor. This opinion is based on a verse from the chapter entitled “The Confederate Tribes” (Ahzab 33:60).

According to Islamic teachings, the closest neighbor is one’s spouse. The next closest neighbor is the one whose door is closest to yours. It is narrated from the Prophet’s wife Aisha that she asked, “O messenger of God! I have two neighbors, to which one of them should I give a gift?” The Prophet said, “To the one whose door is nearest to yours.” According to Muslim historians, the closest neighbor at the time of this question was not a Muslim. From this prophetic tradition, it is clear that when it comes to the observation of neighbors’ rights, it makes no difference whether the neighbors are Muslim or non-Muslim. Furthermore, from this prophetic tradition we understand that Muslims are encouraged not only to treat our neighbors kindly, but also to exchange gifts with them. The wording of the tradition does not indicate whether or not the one with whom we exchange gifts is a Muslim.

The concept of the neighbor is not restricted to those who live in buildings near your home. A roommate in a dorm, the person sitting next to you on a bus or at a bus stop are considered neighbors. The list can be extended to consider a colleague in the office or a person enjoying the fresh air next to you in a public garden.

Importance of Neighbors and Their Rights

According to Islamic teachings, refraining from harming one’s neighbor is a part of faith. The Prophet sometimes used to show the importance of teachings by saying, “Whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him do such-and-such . . . .” Among the prophetic traditions that employ this method of conveying a message is the following narrated from Abu Hurayra: “Whoever believes in God and the Last Day should not harm his neighbor.”

Another important teaching of God’s Messen¬ger showing the importance of neighborliness is narrated from Anas: “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, no man truly believes until he loves for his neighbor what he loves for himself.”

The Prophet stated that treating our neighbors well is a part of being a Muslim. Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet said, “Be God-fearing: you will be the best in worship among the people. Be content with your lot: you will be the most grateful of people. Like for people what you would like for yourself: you will be a believer. Treat your neighbor well: you will be a Muslim.”

Other important teachings on neighborliness include visiting neighbors when they are ill, consoling them at times of sorrow and congratulating them at times of joy, not staring into their house, not staring at what they carry into their house and not looking at their womenfolk, taking care of their family’s needs when they are absent, and forgiving their mistakes. 

Good Relations with Neighbors

The importance of having good relationships with neighbors is sometimes emphasized in general as in the following tradition narrated from Abdullah ibn Amr: “The best of friends, in God’s sight, is the one who is best to his friend; and the best of neighbors, in God’s sight, is the one who is best to his neighbor.” Sometimes very specific aspects of neighbor relationships are pinpointed, but the recommendations do not stop there. We are encouraged not only to have good relations with our neighbors, but also to initiate good deeds. For instance, we are recommended to be the first to greet a neighbor. Kindness to neighbors is always presented as the norm.

In Islam, being good to one’s neighbors encompasses a number of deeds: visiting them, being kind to them in general, and helping them when they need our help. The recommendations even go as far as buying similar things for our neighbors’ children to those we buy for ours. If we are unable to do this, we are discouraged from showing our neighbors’ children what we bought for our children.

Narrated from Aisha, the Prophet said, “Gabriel kept recommending me to treat my neighbor well until I thought that he would tell me to make him one of my heirs.” Abda ibn Ali Lubaba narrates from the Messenger of God: “No deed which harms a neighbor can be regarded as insignificant.”

We should share what we have with our neighbors. Narrated from Abu Dharr the Prophet stated, “Whenever you cook some stew, add extra water to it, then look for some household in your neighborhood and give it to them in kindness.”

In his historic sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage, in which he summarized the most important points of his teachings, the Prophet did not fail to mention neighbors and emphasized their rights to such an extent that the eminent companion Abu Umama also thought that the Prophet would make neighbors heirs: “I heard the Prophet when he was seated on his she-camel during the Farewell Pilgrimage, saying, ‘I enjoin you to treat your neighbors well,’ and urging their good treatment so much that I thought, he is going to give them the rights of inheritance.”

Christian and Jewish Neighbors in Islam

History bears witness to the fact that Christians and Jews, the “People of the Book”1 as they are called in the Qur’an, have lived alongside Muslims in many regions of the Islamic world, secure in the knowledge that they, their honor, and their wealth were safe, enjoying a good neighborly relationship, with good treatment and freedom of worship. Their ancient churches still exist in Muslim villages clinging to mountaintops, surrounded by Muslim community who upholds the well-being of their Jewish and Christian neighbors. When the Prophet was about to pass on to the next world, he stated: “I place in your trust the People of the Book, the Christians and Jews.” When ‘Umar was in the throes of death due to a dagger wound, he warned: “I place the People of the Book among us in your trust. Fear God regarding them and treat them justly.”

Islam aims at spreading mutual love and affection among neighbors. The ways in which people may achieve this are many, and include attitudes ranging from making sure that your neighbor does not sleep hungry while you sleep well fed, to the exchange of gifts. The Muslim attitude toward neighbors includes wishing for their neighbors what they wish for themselves. It includes the sharing of happiness and sorrow. It prohibits spying on them, gossiping about them, and harming them in any way. Instead it establishes respect for their privacy, and keeping common use areas-such as apartment building entrances, streets and sidewalks-clean. The Prophet also said, “Among the things that bring happiness to a Muslim in this life are a righteous neighbor, a spacious house, and a good steed.”

We have tried to shed some light on the Muslim attitude toward neighbors and the importance of neighbor relationships in Islam. The Islamic tradition in this respect is fairly rich and invites the interested reader to further research. A healthy society can be established only through healthy neighborhoods. Education is the key to instilling healthy attitudes of neighborliness in our children as well as in adults. This concept deserves discussion in the classrooms of public schools as well as in seminars and conferences in universities. This flower should be given to all societies as a gift and love should be shared in the community through knowledge.

Footnote

1. Although ahl al-kitap, “People of the Book,” is commonly considered to be referring to Christians and Jews, Islamic tradition accepts, in general terms, other belief systems like Zoroastrians, Buddhists, or Hindus under the same category, as their major tenets of faith are similar to that of Islam’s.

Be they physical or chemical, many attributes of beings are dependent on mathematical laws and their appearances are also shaped along mathematical principles. When we observe creation from this standpoint, we can perceive the perfection as well as the spectacular beauty that is inherent in every being. As reflections of the Attributes of the Names of God Almighty, Jamil (The Owner of Beauty), Bari (The One Who Creates from nothing), Sani (The Maker of All) and Musawwir (The Designer), this beauty found in the external appearance of beings is dependent on more than one factor coinciding. The most important factor here is “symmetry,” which is described as “an exact correspondence and beautiful balance among the parts of an object.” Beings are created with various symmetrical attributes and with great artistic beauty.

The most common symmetry type is the bilateral symmetry; this creates a mirror effect which is an exact correspondence between the right and left sides. An object forms an exact symmetry with its reflection in the mirror. A perfect symmetry that is very similar to the mirror effect can be found in the human body. The left and right sides of our body are symmetrically corresponding. Imagine a dividing line that passes from the middle of the forehead, through nose, chin and down the chest, we can see a perfect symmetry on both sides of the body. Our arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose and lips are designed with a bilateral symmetry. The same symmetrical structures can also be seen in most other creatures. All mammals, reptiles and birds are symmetrically created.

Another type of symmetry is rotational (radial) symmetry. Imagine a metal object that is in the shape of an equilateral triangular placed on the sand. If we will rotate this object 120o around an axis that passes through its center, the new position of the object will fit exactly into its original mark left on the sand. The reason for this is that the radial symmetry for equilateral triangles is 120 degrees. In the same way, a square has a radial symmetry of 90^o and a regular polygon with n number of sides has a radial symmetry of 360/n degrees.

The beautiful symmetry of snow flakes, with their regular hexagonal shape are a beautiful natural phenomenon. In addition to these there are shapes in nature that have a three-dimensional radial symmetry. The most significant of these shapes are regular polyhedrons. An example of such polyhedrons is the salt crystalline elements that have cubical structures. Until recently, the fact that there is a creature in nature that has a regular polyhedral shape, consisting of twenty sides, was unknown. However, when a type of adenovirus that causes infections and hepatitis in dogs was discovered, it was found that there is a creature with twenty regular sides in nature.

One of the most beautiful samples of radial symmetry in nature is the daisy. Symmetrical structures do not only exist in the normal world and in the micro worlds, but also can be found in the macro world, like all the huge celestial objects, the Sun, the Moon, galaxies, star clusters in the sky . . . . All planets move around the Sun in a symmetrical manner, whereas galaxies have a spiral symmetry. It is interesting that the symmetrical structure of living beings is overwhelmingly apparent externally, rather than internally. For example, the internal organs in the human body, like the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines are not symmetrical and we have only one heart in one side of our chest cavity. Moreover, the lobes of the brain are not symmetrical either. However, all the metabolic processes in human body function properly. Does this mean that the mathematical beauty found in our external appearance is merely for aesthetical reasons? God does not create things for only one reason or purpose, on the contrary, He creates them to serve many motives and in relation with many functions. For example, if we did not have two eyes and if they were not symmetrically placed on our faces, we would not be able to see objects three-dimensionally. In the same way, if our ears were not symmetrically placed on our heads, then we would have great difficulty in determining the direction and source of sounds. If we did not have symmetrical feet and legs, we would not be able to walk well, and if our arms were not symmetrical, we would not be able to balance our body’s center of gravity while walking. If birds did not have symmetrical wings, they would not be able to fly, and if the fins of fishes were not symmetrical, they would not be able to swim smoothly.

Symmetry is also closely related to physical and mental robustness. According to one study, women who suffer from an infectious disease during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with asymmetrical features. The same study claims that asymmetrical babies are more susceptible to heart disease than symmetrical babies.

Another study shows that people with asymmetrical teeth are more likely to have more harmful microorganisms in their mouth than those who have symmetrical teeth. It is interesting that there tends to be a greater difference between the fingerprints on the left and right hands of schizophrenic people than on those of normal people.

Symmetry is a phenomenon that is used by animals and insects. For example, an experiment showed that bees prefer flowers that are symmetrical. Actually, flowers with perfectly symmetrical shapes produce more nectar than those that are asymmetrical. In one investigation, a symmetrical flower was made asymmetrical with a pair of scissors. The flower had been attractive to bees before its shape was changed; after made asymmetrical, the flower became unattractive to bees, even though it had just the same amount of nectar as before.

All these facts reveal that there is much wisdom and beauty hidden within the symmetry that the Almighty Designer uses to shape all beings. We take symmetry for granted. To have two eyes placed equidistance and two ears on each side of the head is the norm. Anything else strikes us as strange. But if we just take a few moments to think about why our eyes are where they are, and why our ears are placed on the sides of our heads, the answer is obvious. God’s mercy is infinite; in even the simplest example of symmetry there is a reason. We should not take this world for granted, but rather use every opportunity to dwell upon and be thankful for the wonderful world that has been created for us. 

References

• Stewart, I. & M. Golubitsky, Fearful Symmetry, Blackwell, 1992.
• Rosen, J., Symmetry Discovered, Cambridge University Press, 1975.
• Tarasov, L., This Amazingly Symmetrical World, Mir Publishers, Moscow: 1986.

When I first heard a politician say, “We can rule from beyond the grave,” I didn’t respond very positively. “What does that mean?” I exclaimed in confusion. However, as it dawned on me that he was actually referring to great men and their immortal ideas about transcending our limited ideas, I gradually began to appreciate his meaningful words. As he continued, he mentioned Rumi and quoted his words, “Come, whoever you are; ours is not a caravan of despair.” I then realized that this wise politician’s words were a subtle yet powerful invitation to unity and brotherhood.

The greatest challenge ever known to humankind will probably always be that of transcendence. Surpassing one’s biases, expanding one’s horizons and striving toward universal brotherhood, thereby existing above the cherished limits of one’s comfort zones is probably the toughest virtue to cultivate and practice. The more we choose to identify solely with our primary reference groups, the more we become divided. When these sources of identity are closer to us in time and space like those of political parties, provincial and ethnic group memberships, we only become even more constrained. This parochial mentality will sooner or later give birth to fear and hatred for those unlike us, or those who do not share our ideas and experiences. Inevitably, hostility and bitterness will be generated as consequences of these narrow and circumscribed reference points. In contrast, the farther we traverse beyond the “grave,” beyond space and time, the more our horizons expand and inch toward universal brotherhood. Rumi touches upon this very lesson in transcendence calling all of us passionately to his caravan. It was in the same light that Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, addressed all of humankind with these timeless words: “Those who believe in One God are but brothers and sisters.”

Scientists today will vouch for the fact that technology has shrunk the boundaries of our world, ensconcing us in one big global village. This extraordinary sense of the compression of time and space has made it possible to imagine ourselves in the prophet Adam’s time again. However, the relevant question to ask ourselves at this juncture is whether or not our outlooks and mentalities have developed to a degree, so as to embrace and accept the virtue of togetherness that prevailed during that time. The bitter truth remains that although materially superior, we are far from the solidarity that was typical during the time of Adam. There is however a light at the end of this dreary tunnel. If we cannot bridge the gap that exists between our differences, perhaps tracing our roots back to common fathers will help reconcile some of these discordances. It is at this key juncture that the acknowledgement of great prophets and their messages becomes mandatory. It is through the legacy of such distinguished messengers that we shall endeavor to reconstruct our spiritual world. Abraham is the best example of one such prophet who is still accepted as a common father and loved by all believers whose heritage is intrinsically connected with him.

The Prophet Abraham: The Beloved Patriarch

Abraham is the beloved prophet of the members of three great religions, who take him as an exemplar, dutifully venerating this revered patriarch. Sacred texts of the three monotheistic religions make many deferential references to the prophet Abraham. For instance, a verse from the Old Testament reads:

Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, unto a land that I will show you: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing; And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Likewise, the New Testament makes the following mention of the great prophet: . . . Abraham, who is the father of us all (Romans 4:16). Another verse of the Bible states, For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith (Romans 4:13). The Holy Qur’an similarly proffers an exceptional place upon the prophet Abraham. In response to the dispute between the Jews and Christians and their tendency to appropriate him to themselves, it clearly indicates that Abraham was a Hanif (Follower of the Truth). It further explicates that he was essentially Muslim and joined not gods with God (Al Imran 3:68). What is even more wondrous is that while referring to Islam, the Qur’an describes it (at least seven times) as Your father Abraham’s religion. 1

One may ask, “Isn’t it an incredible mistake to call someone who lived 2,600 years before Prophet Muhammad a ‘Muslim,’ which is a derivative of ‘Islam’ ?” The answer to this objection is that the Holy Qur’an clearly elucidates the fact that the religion before God is Islam (Al Imran 3:19) indicating that the essence of all the religions brought by the many prophets since Adam has remained the same. In the same light, Islam is but a reinforcement of these very principles. Most importantly, in Arabic the word Islam means, “submission to God’s will.” Islamic scholars hence summarize the following four essential principles that have remained constant in all religions:

Unity of God: The belief that there is one God Who is the creator of existence.

Belief in the Afterlife: The belief that after death we will be resurrected and asked to account for our actions in this world.

Complete faith in the Prophethood: The firm belief in all prophets and God’s message they brought to humankind.

Adherence to Justice: The fulfillment of man’s responsibilities to God, to others around him, and his responsibility to himself: his thoughts and actions (worship, law, morality).

Consequently, Islamic scholars do not accept as celestial any religion that does not include these four points. These issues endure in the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the Qur’an. So much so, that the names, deeds and miracles of prophets in the Old Testament are found in Christianity and Islam as well. It can therefore be argued in accordance with the above explanation that in essence, Judaism and Christianity are nothing but “Islam.” It must be reinforced that this Islam, which has prevailed over a constantly evolving humankind since the time of the prophet Adam, has essentially been the same. It is precisely due to this unchanging core that it was easy and natural for some of the peripheral details of the religion to become modified in accordance with the constantly evolving social conditions as and when each prophet was sent to propagate a specific message.

Rediscovering the Most Important Prophetic Link

Abraham represents a very important link in the chain of prophets, each of which accentuates some kind or degree of human development. According to the Qur’an, Abraham’s book does not take into precise consideration detailed matters of right and wrong or, in other words, issues of human law and punishment. The Divine Will therefore consigned appropriate books and divine messages to other prophets. Upon examining the chapters in the Qur’an related to Abraham’s book such as A’la and Najm, (verses 36-54 or others²related to Abraham), we see they are all related to faith, worship, and virtue. This offers further proof of the fact that as in the Old Testament, legal decrees, as far as the prophet Abraham is concerned, are absent in the Qur’an. This, however, should not be understood as a misgiving or an aberration. It is supremely important to acknowledge that a prophet like Abraham on whom members of the three major monotheistic faiths all confer respect, appreciation and love, emphasized faith, worship and virtue rather than legal judgment. This can be argued for the following reasons:

Judicial matters are subject to constant change depending upon the socio-political situation of the existing people. It is because of this that Muslim scholars collectively adopt that “changes in time and legal matters cannot be denied.”³ It would therefore be a colossal task to attempt to unite these three religions, under the umbrella of a common law.

With some exceptions, spiritual and moral values are predominantly universal. The values represented in Abraham’s character and actively realized in his life, are values that can be adhered to by all of humankind. The conscious implementation of these values is necessary for both individual and communal spiritual evolution.

Furthermore, these values transcend the boundaries of religion. Values form the inner framework of anyone intent upon leading a life of righteousness and decency. It is precisely because of this all-embracing nature of Abrahamic messages that they render themselves the perfect tools for the arduous task of propagating unity and brotherhood.

Abrahamic Messages: Enduring Lessons in Unity and Brotherhood

There are innumerable Abrahamic virtues mentioned in the Qur’an and the sayings of the Prophet (hadiths) which carry timeless lessons for humankind. It is interesting to note that most of these lessons imparted by Abraham are those that were reinforced emphatically on more than one occasion by Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. It is hence evident that a journey into the essence of the three faiths will reveal but one beating heart! It is the purpose of this text not merely to enumerate these virtues, but also to explain how these can be used as founding stones upon which to build the palaces of unity and brotherhood.

Abandoning meaningless imitation of ancestors

The Qur’an mentions that one of the greatest obstacles encountered by the prophets in conveying the divine message was the meaningless imitation of tribal ancestors. When the prophets attempted to expound the divine word, one of the commonest excuses offered by the tribes for not accepting the call was the inexplicable fear of abandoning the path of their ancestors. Whether it was worshipping idols or indulging in other despicable rituals, the very fact that it was practiced by their ancestors was given as evidence of its purity and necessity.⁴

One of the matters in his calling that the prophet Abraham constantly dwelled upon was humankind’s enduring struggle with this particular weakness. In the following verse, it can be seen that he cried out to both his father and his nation about this. From the very fact that “father” and “nation” are mentioned, it is clear that Abraham reiterated to his father the mistake of imitating ancestors blindly from his initial call until the very end of his life. He said to his father and people:

“What are these images to which you are (so assiduously) devoted?” To this they replied, “We found our fathers worshipping them.” When Abraham stated, “Indeed you have been in manifest error-you and your fathers,” they answered, “Have you brought us the truth, or are you one of those who jest?” To which he replied, “Nay, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth. He who created them (from nothing): and I am a witness to this (truth).” (Anbiya 21:52-56)

Verification of faith

This is probably one of the first messages that comes to mind when Abraham is mentioned, especially today. Just as he opposed the tradition in former pagan societies of continuing the religion of their forefathers or being satisfied with what they had learned from their ancestors about faith and worship, he also took the verification of revealed faith as a reigning principle. The Holy Qur’an does not mention the verification of all matters involved in faith; however, it does clearly put forth the verification of two of faith’s most important principles. One of these is related to God’s existence and unity and the other to resurrection (or the dead being raised to life in the afterlife). If humankind can instill these two principles as the edifices of faith, it is believed that other matters can be easily accepted.

Rather than resorting to the compulsive instruction of abstract philosophies, Abraham verifies the matter of God’s existence and unity by intelligently illustrating God’s majesty that is clearly visible in the exterior realm of existence such as the impeccable order prevalent in nature and in the universe. Thus, he plants the internal seeds of faith by opening our eyes to the external verification of matters of faith. Abraham explains his message of divine unity through indicating the uselessness of the worship of stars, which was the religion in esteem in his community. In order to guide his people to truth, Abraham takes what they worshipped as a starting point. First he says to the brightest star in the sky, “This is my Lord,” (according to your claims), but when it fades he assumes that the brighter moon might be God. However, when the moon disappears, he says that the sun, which is the brightest of all, must be his Lord. When he sees the sun set, he tries to make his people understand that those things that set cannot be God (An’am 6:75-81).

The Qur’an mentions this even more striking investigation related to the resurrection of the dead (belief in the hereafter):

Behold! Abraham said: “My Lord! Show me how you give life to the dead.” He said, “Do you not then believe?” He said, “Yes! But to satisfy my own understanding.” He said, “Take four birds; tame them to turn to you; Put a portion of them on every hill, and call to them: they will come to you (flying) with speed. Then know that God is exalted in Power, Wise.” (Baqara 2:260)

Razi, a great commentator on the Qur’an, formulated the basic principle presented to humankind in this verse related to the investigation of faith as “the verse that proves that religion must be based on proof, not imitation.”

Investigation of faith: Basing religious precepts upon intelligent rationale

It must be emphasized that “investigation of faith,” one of Abraham’s clearest messages, is a very convincing argument for those today who shy away from religion because they are tired of imitation. This Abrahamic message explains clearly that religion must rest on an intelligent and methodical investigation, and not on blind, heedless imitation. Indiscriminate imitation is construed as a mistake, a crime committed in the name of religion by incompetent men of religion. As a matter of fact, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, comprehending that his community of followers was more in need of seeking verification of faith, said “We are more apt to uncertainty than Abraham.”⁵ Commenting further on this subject, God’s Messenger said, out of his modesty:

Just as I never wavered (in faith), Abraham never wavered in any way. If prophets had the impediment of doubt, I would have been the most vulnerable, but you know that I have never been uncertain. You should know, then, that he never fell into uncertainty either. ”⁶

Thus, it is necessary to understand the nature of Abraham’s uncertainty in this light. Of course, it is not possible to doubt the degree of the submission to God of a prophet like Abraham; it has been clearly verified in the Qur’an.⁷ In this case, this Abrahamic story is a message and lesson for future humankind regarding the necessity of the verification of one’s faith. Moreover, the fact that principles of faith are open to intelligent verification presents a great challenge to atheism.

Watering the tree of divine unity

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Abraham that is mentioned again and again in the Qur’an is his not being from the pagans. This is a striking expression because it is reiterated in six different places regarding Abraham: He is not from the pagans. ⁸ In one case, he exclaims, I am not from the pagans (An’am 6:79). It is obvious that a prophet will never adhere to the precepts of paganism. Despite this indubitable fact, the repeated assertion about Abraham being not from the pagans must be an emphasis on how sensitive he was on matters regarding the Unity of God. This situation allows us to make this conclusion: just as lack of faith has different degrees, faith has different levels of conviction in the Unity of God.

Willingness and unquestioning obedience to the Divine alone

The other distinguishing attributes of Abraham mentioned in the Qur’an are different reflections of his multi-faceted messengership. He was devoted to the divine and complied with his duties without hesitation or doubt. Abraham is said to have met his Lord willingly, with a peaceful heart, when he was ordered by the Divine in his dream to sacrifice his only son, whom Abraham had so lovingly fathered at a very advanced age, and who had been born as a result of much pleading and prayer. There are several lessons to be learnt from this great apostle and the incredible incidents of his life such as his struggle alone against a whole community including his parents, the king, the law and custom; his disputes with the king; destroying idols; being thrown out of his family; being thrown into the fire; exile and migration: all of these difficult experiences that he faced are expressions of the strength and power of his belief in the Unity of God.

Tawhid-Unity

Regarding Abraham’s pure belief in God’s unity, it is fitting to quote another verse in the Qur’an. It is stated in the verse 106 of the chapter Yusuf (Joseph): And most of them believe not in God without associating (others as partners) with Him! This verse can be assumed to make an allusion to those who fall into the clutches of shirk, the worship of others instead of God or along with God, the gravest sin in Islam. As a matter of fact, the clear reference to “hidden shirk” expressed in Prophet Muhammad’s sayings warns us that even exemplary Muslims can unconsciously fall into hidden shirk in spite of their belief in God. In a hadith from Al-Mustadrak, the Prophet lays down a guideline that must be thought about seriously: Love. The various objects of an individual’s love and affection which are cherished in the heart are the rightful determinants of a person’s religion. If love is not centered on God, it is denotative of shirk. In order for a person to escape from the grip of shirk, he has to be consciously in control of all the emotions which are generated in the heart. Emotions like love, hatred, appreciation, reprimand, malice, and enmity must be directed solely according to God’s approval. Thus the guideline put forth by the Messenger of God was:

Shirk is more silent than the sound of a small ant’s footsteps while walking on Safa (a small hill nearby the Ka‘ba in Makka) during a dark night. The smallest degree of this shirk is liking someone in spite of oppression and hating someone in spite of justice. Do you think that religion is anything other than love and hate? God said, “If you love God, conform to Me.” ⁹

In chapter Mumtahana, in the first verse, it is indicated that those who show love to God’s enemies have strayed from the true path precisely because of this misdirected love.

To further illuminate this fact, it is important to recapitulate the hadith about those who are so fond of money that they refrain from giving a small share to the less fortunate. Those resembling the aforementioned are rightly called abd al-dinar (slave to the money) and abd al-kadifa (slave to velvet) and are duly cursed.¹⁰ In addition, many other indulgences and vices such as hypocrisy,¹¹ swearing oaths in the way pagans do,¹² belief in superstition,¹³ and sorcery¹⁴ are expressed as shirk in the hadiths. Some scholars also consider attribution of divinity by some Jews to Ezra (Uzayr) and some Christians to Jesus, by way of addressing them as “son of God” as shirk, despite their belief in God, the Merciful and the Compassionate, Who created the heavens and the earth.

In this case, Abraham’s belief in the Unity of God, which is repeatedly lauded in the Holy Qur’an, is an uncorrupted conviction in God’s unity that has been purified of the minutest and most hidden of polytheistic tendencies. The late Fahraddin Razi described the station of Abraham’s faith as follows: “Those who are familiar with Qur’anic knowledge know that Abraham drowned in the ocean of tawhid (belief in the Unity of God).¹⁵ Abraham’s tawhid is hence presented as a remarkable example to all believers who love him (Jews, Christians, and Muslims).¹⁶

Lessons from a true hanif

The word hanif is mentioned almost in the same vein as Abraham. In fact this word is mentioned ten times in the Qur’an and almost all of them in relation to Abraham; most of them are explicit and some are implied. The term Abraham’s hanif religion is mentioned five times. The word hanif is an adjective from the infinitive, hanef. Hanef tends from error to straightness, from crookedness to rightness and from superstition to truth. Thus, a hanif is one who has renounced crookedness and turned to the straight path. Aeons of customary practice have transformed this word into a synonym of Abraham’s religion during the time of ignorance.¹⁷ It literally means one who has left other religions and idols and turned toward the one God. According to explanations of the hadiths, it not only refers to the turning away from superstitions to the Truth, it is also laden with the messages of tolerance and acceptance. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said, —I have been sent with tolerant and easy Hanifism.—¹⁸ This hadith was conferred on the people in attendance at a festivity (iyd). Aisha explains that the Messenger of God offered this explanation so that —the Jews would know that there is tolerance in Islam,— and it was also indicated that the Prophet meant —Let Jews and Christians know that there is expansiveness in our religion.—¹⁹ Confirming that Hanifism carries the messages of tolerance and easiness (in other words a general, universal acceptance coupled with simply elucidated principles) Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said, —Tolerant Hanifism is the most lovable religion to God—²⁰; —Your religion (the path you follow) is the best and easiest.—²¹ God declares to the Prophet, He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion, the faith of your father Abraham (Hajj 22:78). In the religion of Islam, expressed as Hanifism, tolerance and easiness are among the most basic principles: Thus it is due to mercy from God that you deal with them gently, and had you been rough, hard hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you. (Al Imran 3:159) God’s Messenger announced that —Religion is easiness,—²² and, according to Aisha, he would always choose the easiest way to put forth a command.²³ He would say to those extremists, who in the spirit of attaining —the most perfect— in religion, would not be satisfied with perfection and would go to every kind of difficulty and trouble, —This religion of Islam is easiness. Whoever races violently to do the best in religion (will not be successful and) religion will overcome him. So take the middle road, do the best according to your power, and give good tidings.—²⁴

Regard for nature and one’s environment

One of the most noteworthy traits of Abraham was his humble regard for the environment. When Abraham built the Ka’ba and began the Hajj at God’s command, he also took precautions to make it a clean and safe place.²⁵ In light of this, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, declared Makka as haram (sacred, inviolable) as a precaution to guarantee the safety and cleanliness of that holy site.²⁶ This declaration not only prevented bloodshed there, but also prohibited hunting and the cutting of trees, the searing of leaves and uprooting of weeds. Thus, it became the prototype of environmentalism by taking humanity’s first serious decision about the protection of the environment, an issue which is on the top of humankind’s agenda today. Later when the Prophet declared as haram an area of 35 kilometers in diameter surrounding Madina like a green belt, he made a due reference to Abraham’s similar action in Makka.

Faithfulness to promises and conscientiousness in the performance of one’s duties

One of the many attributes that makes Abraham prominent is eloquently expressed in the Qur’an in: Abraham who fulfilled his engagements (Najm 53:37). He was always known for his honesty and his faithfulness toward the fulfillment of any promises made. The Holy Qur’an emphasized this side of him as well: Also mentioned in the Book (the story of) Abraham: He was a man of Truth, a prophet (Maryam 19:41). Due to these attributes, Abraham successfully passed all the tests given to him by God: And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain Commands, which he fulfilled (Baqara 2:124). Islamic scholars say the fact that the number of characteristic attributes possessed by Abraham which were duly tested was thirty²⁷ indicate that approximately thirty virtues of Abraham are mentioned in four different chapters of the Qur’an.²⁸

Hospitality

One of Abraham’s celebrated attributes is hospitality. It is said that he was the first real host actually to entertain guests and was hence given the nickname Abu’l-Adaiaf (father of guests).²⁹ The Qur’an informs us that on one occasion, he slaughtered a fat cow and prepared an elaborate dinner for some unexpected guests with whom he was not even well acquainted.³⁰ From the hesitation of the guests to eat the food that was served, and Abraham’s subsequent apprehension at their shying away from the food, it is assumed that these guests were strangers.

Steadfastness and compassion

Another attribute of Abraham mentioned in the Qur’an is his compassion. Even his name, which is Syriac, is meaningful and befitting to one who showed enormous compassion. It is an expression that means compassionate, merciful father. ³¹ We also understand from explanations of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, that regarding the matter of being merciful to others, Abraham underwent a special instruction from God.³² After this, Abraham never left this line of mercy in word or in deed until the very end in spite of his being imprisoned (for guiding the people around him)³³ or whilst being thrown into the fire³⁴ or whilst being exiled from his homeland.³⁵ In the words of our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him, he acted —sweeter than honey— toward his clan³⁶ and did not ask for them to be punished. He said, —My Lord! Surely they have led many men astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me, and whoever disobeys me, You surely are Forgiving, Merciful— (Ibrahim 14:36). His sharpest words to those who were going to throw him into the fire were, —Fie upon you, and upon the things that you worship besides God! Have you no sense?— (Anbiya 21:67). Even these words only show Abraham’s uniqueness among God’s messengers in terms of being merciful to his people. We do not encounter any divine revelation or historical account where he is reported to have cursed his nation even under the worst conditions. Abraham’s compassionate nature was most pronounced toward his loved ones and the believers. The prayer mentioned below is one that epitomizes the request of all believers for mercy and it is recited by Muslims throughout the world. It reads, My Lord! On the day of reckoning forgive me, my mother and father and the believers (Ibrahim 14:41). Its presence in the Qur’an as one of Abraham’s prayers is monumental proof witnessing his compassion and not a mere coincidence. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who took pride in identifying himself with Abraham’s Hanif religion, would say to those who asked him to curse the pagans (even though they did terrible things to him): —I was sent as a mercy, not as one to make curses.—³⁷ Even to those who oppressed him most he would avoid any thought of revenge and would say, —My Lord! Forgive my tribe because they don’t yet know the truth— and —Maybe some will come from this generation who worship God.—³⁸ Knowing this, it is easy to appreciate the significance of the verse: We have not sent you, but as a Mercy to the worlds (Anbiya 21:107). He duly received the praise of the Malak al-Jibal (angel of the mountains): —You are Benign (and) Merciful as your Lord made you known.—³⁹ In fact, God’s Messenger was not only compassionate to the Muslims: —Whoever oppresses a dhimmi (non-Muslim living in a Muslim country), I am his mortal enemy, and I will settle accounts with my enemies on Judgment Day.—⁴⁰ In similar statements, it is seen that he had been commanded to do good and show mercy and compassion to non-Muslims and, in fact, every creature —fresh (plants),— or —carrying a liver (animals).—⁴¹ He is rightfully called the Mercy to the Worlds, (Anbiya 21:107) and we say, —This is the way to follow Abraham’s path and be worthy of him.— In essence, apart from the tawhid, Abraham professed many other vital aspects of Islam. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the last prophet of the Almighty, is said to have perfected this message.

Extensiveness of Abraham’s compassion

The degree of Abraham’s mercy is evident from the Qur’an which details his argument with the angels who were sent to punish Lot’s tribe. The Qur’an does not delve into the specifics, but it is obvious that the reason for Abraham’s argument with the angels, despite the tribe being rebellious and sinful, was in fact that in his heart he did not want them to be annihilated. When Abraham saw that the guests did not reach for the food he had offered them, he became afraid. Even after the angels had introduced themselves and said that they had been sent down to punish Lot’s tribe and, moreover, to give him the good news about his child, he continues arguing with them by saying, —Lot is there, too.— When fear had passed from (the mind of) Abraham and the glad tidings had reached him, he began to plead with Us for Lot’s people (Hud 11:74). It is indicated in the next verse that the angels understood that Abraham was without doubt, forbearing (of faults), compassionate, and that he had objected to them for these very reasons. After this had transpired, the angels adopted a sharper tone and said, —Well do we know who is there,— and they indicated that they would save Lot’s family except his wife. (Ankabut 29:32). In spite of this, Abraham, whose feelings of compassion had by then reached a crescendo, must have continued the argument because the angels concluded the matter by saying, —O Abraham! Seek not this. The decree of your Lord has gone forth: for them there comes a penalty— (Hud 11:76).

Concern for the welfare of the Abrahamic lineage

The Qur’an mentions Abraham’s concern over his family’s welfare in several verses. In response to this genuine interest, God bestowed the Abrahamic dynasty with a blessing and providence that no other dynasty has received so far. A clear example to illustrate this fact is a part of the Muslims’ prayer which asks for mercy from God for Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his family at each of the five daily ritual prayers. Included in this is also recourse to God’s mercy toward Abraham and his family: O Lord! Have mercy on Muhammad and his family just as you show mercy to Abraham and his family! What an honor and unbounded exaltation it is for Abraham and his dynasty for this plea to receive an allotted space in the ritual prayer, which is the greatest act of worship for Muslims. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi explains this request for mercy in the prayer by the fact that prophets have in fact descended from Abraham’s lineage: —His family are prophets; Prophet Muhammad’s family are saints. A saint cannot measure up to a prophet.—⁴² Such a chain of light formed by prophets is the direct result and blessings of Abraham’s prayer. The acceptance of this prayer in God’s presence is the direct consequence of the fact that Abraham was Khalilullah (the friend of God).⁴³ When this exalted station of friend to the Lord of the Worlds was conferred upon Abraham as a result of his service and the purity of his tawhid, at every opportunity he persistently used his special position in favor of his family and lineage. It was as a result of this that he procured until Doomsday, the station of physical and spiritual imam for the beneficial people of his lineage and, from divine mercy, the good will and affection that people feel toward them. However, it is necessary to understand that the interest that people feel toward Abraham’s descendants is not a feeling that in any way can be associated with tribalism and ethnocentrism in the sense that people understand it today. It has more to do with a feeling of grace toward human unity. Abraham’s interest and concern for his family and dynasty are a natural consequence of his immaculate planning and foresight. It is evident from the Qur’an that Abraham developed a regime for the family that reinforced God’s commands with the strict adherence to virtues. This system took into consideration the family’s geographical, socio-economic and even environmental conditions giving precedence to ritual prayer directed toward the Almighty.⁴⁴

Other Abrahamic Virtues

A few other salient virtues that demand a mention are those of unconditional submission to God’s commands⁴⁵; thankfulness for blessings⁴⁶; acts of cleanliness like the circumcision of children, washing the mouth and nose, cleaning the teeth, cutting nails, shaving private parts and under-arms, and washing the front and back private organs with water after using the toilet⁴⁷; strength in worship, intuition in religion⁴⁸; good-temperedness; acknowledgement of one’s mistakes and repentance; taking refuge in God⁴⁹; possessing a peaceful heart⁵⁰; treating one and all with respect and dignity⁵¹; being uncompromising in struggle⁵²; migrating for God’s sake⁵³; etc. As an exemplar of these attributes, Abraham had almost become a community in himself in God’s view: Abraham was indeed a [community] model, devoutly obedient to God, (and) true in faith, and he joined not gods with God (Nahl 16:120). In conclusion, it must be noted that Abraham is assigned a special place by members of the three monotheistic religions. The many human values identified with his personality are values with which all of humankind can concur, without any discordance. If these values are practiced and upheld, it will contribute to the birth of the much awaited universal peace. A re-configuration of identities in which communities of different colors, languages and cultures begin to see themselves as being connected to Abraham in one way or another is an invaluable proposition, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. Until almost the beginning of the last century, the perception of Muslims as being from —Abraham’s nation— contributed greatly to their living together in unity with members of other religions. This is also true for many Christian peoples who lived for long centuries in peace and contentment under Muslim rule. This is especially true of the ruling Ottomans, for whom this feeling was very pronounced, because the Islamic sharia offered a special place to the Ahl al-Kitab (people of the book) as it referred to the followers of Abraham, guaranteeing their property, lives and honor as well as recognizing their freedom of religion. Universal peace can be realized upon the edifice of these aforementioned arguments with the alliance of the three great world religious communities of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This can be achieved by the inculcation of an all-encompassing attitude, of perceiving ourselves as belonging to the community of Abraham. It is possible to dream of hope once again, hope for peace and happiness through the conscious understanding and practice of Abrahamic tawhid. It is therefore the duty of those who desire peace, to put into action Abraham’s messages of universal unity and brotherhood.

Footnotes

1. Baqara 2:130, 135; Al Imran 3:95; Anbiya 21:125; An’am 6:161; Hajj 22:78; Nahl 16:123.
2. All the verses regarding Abraham and their analysis can be found in Hz. brahim’in Mesajı (The message of the prophet Abraham), Canan, I., Sule Publications, Istanbul: 1998.
3. 39th article in the Mecelle-i Ahkam-¦ Adliye (Journal of Judicial Provisions), Dersaadet, Istanbul: 1322 (AD 1904), p. 27.
4. See Zukhruf 43:22-23; Baqara 2:170; Maida 5:104; A’raf 7:28; Yunus 10:78; Anbiya 21:53; Shu’ara 26:74; Luqman 31:21; Hud 11:62, 87.
5. Bukhari, Anbiya, 11; Tafsir, Baqara 2:46; Muslim, Iman, 238.
6. Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari bi-Sharh al-Bukhari, Egypt: 1959, 7, 223.
7. See Baqara 2:131.
8. Baqara 2:135; Al Imran 3:67, 95; An’am 6:161; Nahl 16: 123.
9. Hakim, Abu Abdillah an-Naysaburi, al-Mustadrak Haydarabad-Deken. 1335 (AD 1917), 2, 291.
10. Ibn Maja, Sunan, Zuhd 8, (4135, 4136 HI.); Tirmidhi, Sunan, Matbaat al-Andulus, Humus: 1966, Zuhd 42.
11. Ibn Maja, Fitan 16; Tirmidhi, Nuzur, 9; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4, 126.
12. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, Cairo: 1313 (AD 1895) 2, 60.
13. Tirmidhi, Seerah, 46.
14. Abu Dawud, Sunan, Humus: 1969, Tib 17; Ibn Maja, Tib, 39.
15. Razi, Tafsir, 20, 135.
16. Mumtahana, 60: 4.
17. Ibn al-Asir, an-Nihaya, Cairo: 1963, 1, 451.
18. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 6, 116, 233; 5, 266.
19. Ibn Hajar, al-Matalib al-Aliya, Kuwait: 1973, 3, 30.
20. Bukhari, Imam, 29; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 1, 236.
21. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4, 338.
22. Bukhari, Iman, 29; Nasai, Iman, 28; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 69.
23. Bukhari, Manaqib 27; Adab 80; Muslim, Fadhail, 77, 78; Abu Dawud, Adab, 4; Malik Ibn Anas, Al-Muwatta, Egypt: 1951, Husn al-Khulk 2; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 6, 85.
24. Bukhari, Iman, 29: Nasai, Iman, 28: Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 4:422; 5:350, 351.
25. See Baqara 2:125-128.
26. Bukhari, Jihad, 71; Muslim, Hajj, 458-472; Abu Dawud, Manasik, 96, Balazuri, Futuh al-Buldan, Beirut: 1958, 1, 16-17; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 58, Ibn al-Asir, Usd al-Gaba, Cairo: 1970, 6, 388. For more information on this subject see my book Cevre Ahlak (Environmental Ethics), Nesil. Istanbul: 1995, pp. 72-81.
27. Bayzawi, Anwar al-Tanzil (Tafsir), Egypt: 1955, 1, 35; Tabari, Tarih al-Muluk val-Umam, Beirut: 1967, 1, 279.
28. Ahzab 33:35; Tawba 9:112; Muminun 23:1-11; Maarij 70:22-35.
29. Ibn Kathir, Tafsir 6, 69, Beirut: 1966; Ibn Sa’d, at-Tabakat al-Kubra, Beirut: 1960, 1, 47.
30. Dhariyat 51:25-30; Hud 11:69.
31. See Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari, 7, 196; Elmal¦l¦ Hamdi Yaz¦r, Hak Dini Kur’an Dili, Istanbul: 1960, 1, 491.
32. Suyuti, al-Durr al-Mansur, 3, 24.
33. This subject was mentioned previously.
34. Anbiya 21:68.
35. Maryam 19:46.
36. Waqidi, al-Maghazi, Oxford: 1966, 1,109.
37. Muslim, Birr, 87.
38. Halabi, al-Sirat al-Halabiyya, 1,357; 2,256.
39. Halabi, ibid., 1, 357. Although the revelation praising the Prophet as —Benign— and —Mercy— came much later, the Malak al-Jibal said this before his prophecy. Zurkani explains this by saying, —It is possible that the angel knew of these attributes,— and he says that there’s nothing strange about it. (Sharh al-Mawahib al-Ladunniyya, Beirut: 1973, 1, 298). Note: The Malak al-Jibal said this when the Prophet was leaving Taif, where he had gone for calling people to Islam.
40. Suyuti, al-Fath al-Kabir, 3, 144.
41. Bukhari, Mazalim, 23; Muslim, Salam, 153.
42. Nursi, S., Sualar, Sozler Publications, Istanbul: 1992, p. 81.
43. Nisa 4:125.
44. I prepared and presented a paper on this subject entitled Hz. Ibrahim’de Aile Terbiyesi (Abraham’s Family Training) at a symposium related to Abraham, which was organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation and held on April 20-22, 2000 in Urfa, Turkey.
45. Baqara 2:131.
46. Nahl 16:120-121.
47. Muslim, Tahara, 56; Abu Dawud, Tahara, 29, Tirmidhi, Adab, 14; Nasai, Tahara, 1; Ibn Maja, Tahara, 8.
48. Sad 38:45-46.
49. Hud 11:75.
50. Saffat 37:84.
51. Suyuti, al-Jami al-Saghir (Fayz al-Qadir commentary) 3, 71.
52. Mumtahana 60:4.
53. Saffat 37:99.

Wolf (1999) notes that a nonprofit organization is neither in the profit sector nor in the public sector but sits somewhere between the two. This position allows the nonprofit great flexibility in its operation but requires great skill in its management. Nonprofit organizations have characteristics of profit and public organizations. Wolf defines nonprofit organizations as “those legally constituted, nongovernmental entities incorporated under state law as charitable or not-for-profit corporations that have been set up to serve some public purpose and are tax exempt.” All nonprofit organizations must have the following characteristics:

• They must have a public service mission-their main goal must be to serve others, not themselves.

• They must be organized as a not-for-profit or charitable corporation-they must formally claim to be non-profit.

• Their governance structure must preclude self interest and private financial gain-this goes back to the first characteristic in that the organization’s main goal is to serve people.

• They must be exempt from paying federal tax.

• They must possess the special legal status that stipulates gifts made to them are tax-deductible.

It is obvious that the nonprofit sector has expanded dramatically over the past few years, so has public scrutiny over the sector. Governance is needed to ensure that the organization is providing services that are permitted within the legal system and the bylaws and to ensure that the organization does not permit fraud, potential abuse, and violations of the expectations of the public. Governance of a nonprofit can be defined as the ultimate authority, accountability, and responsibility for an organization (Ott 2001). Leadership, such as the board, is important in the nonprofit sector because it is governed through a complex set of functional roles and procedures that are defined in laws and tax codes that differ from those for the public and for-profit sector. The board is responsible for policies, procedures, financial outcomes, and ensuring that the mission of the organization is being implemented and accomplished to the best of the organization’s ability to serve its target population or general public.

There are some challenges that nonprofit organizations face in our modern societies. The first major challenge for a nonprofit organization is articulating a clear public service mission. A nonprofit organization is required by law to limit its activities to those articulated in the mission statement, so the mission statement must be broad enough to cover all possible activities. The mission statement must also guide the direction of the organization’s programs, services, and activities. In addition, a mission statement may require review and revision over time. For example, an arts council can begin with a mission to develop, foster, and promote the arts, and then develop a stronger mission statement that provides detailed plans for programs and activities, such as working with the school district to develop art education programs, and seeking funds from state, federal, and private sources.

The second major challenge is risk/survival analysis: the search for the proper balance between organizational extension and risk-taking, and organizational security. Engaging in risk/survival analysis means having an understanding of what should and should never be compromised, always being cognizant of the mission and whether or not daily activities or decisions are in harmony with that mission. This challenge identifies a great dilemma for nonprofit organizations: whether it is more important to ensure survival of the organization or to stay true to the mission. There is no easy answer. To meet this challenge, the organization must continually plan, analyze future options (both practical and idealistic), and debate the pros and cons of each option.

The third major challenge facing a nonprofit organization is constituency identification and involvement. Identifying and involving the constituency entails having a working knowledge of the clientele you desire to serve. This must not be too narrow or too broad. The nonprofit organization must establish a concise identification of its constituency in order to avoid problems in this area. The organization must identify the group that it seeks to serve, and then must create a structure that supports a commitment to that group. To meet this challenge, the organization must have a well-defined understanding of its constituency, seek to involve the constituency at all levels of the organization (particularly at the trustee level), and provide programs and activities that reflect a commitment to the constituency.

The fourth major challenge is testing for organized abandonment: that is, disbanding that is the result of careful deliberation, rather than unplanned events, such as financial crisis or management problems. In order to meet this challenge, the organization must have a clearly defined mission, establish criteria for evaluation of the mission, and have a formal system to determine whether or not the mission is relevant and effective. The organization must examine whether or not its mission is obsolete or if other organizations are more effective in achieving its mission.

In conclusion, nonprofit organizations go where other organizations fear to tread. Nonprofits eagerly work with the most disadvantaged members of society-the homeless, the hungry, the ill, and the befuddled. Nonprofits fill the gaps in society-consider the thousands of charter schools that have sprung up to provide a genuine alternative, most frequently for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Nonprofits extend and even function as government service-providers: how would most governmental social service agencies function if not by contracting out to tens of thousands of nonprofit service providers. Think too of the thousands of neighborhood associations that knit together their communities, and sometimes act indistinguishably from chartered governments. Nonprofits help people find meaning-both through quiet worship and organizing millions of people to do “good deeds.” People who want to “do something, to give back to society” sometimes do so through governments, but most do so through nonprofits. Millions of volunteers contribute and share in the nonprofit sector. Finally, unlike the other sectors, the nonprofit sector does not start out by asking how much money can be made, or where the money is going to come from; no, the nonprofit sector asks what the need is and how to fulfill the need. Only then does it seek strategies to support the social needs it discovers. Although by nature humble, it is the nonprofit sector that makes our complex and frequently materialistic and even selfish society, humane, purposeful, and cohesive. The private sector may provide the engine of growth and a quality of life; the public sector may organize us and keep the private sector in line; but it is the nonprofit sector that is our heart, our soul, and our spirit as a society.

References

• Ott, J. Steven (ed.), Understanding Nonprofit Organizations: Governance, Leadership, and Management, Westview Press, Boulder, CO: 2001.
• Wolf, Thomas, Managing a Nonprofit Organization in the Twenty-First Century, Simon & Schuster, New York: 1999.

Nursi frames his view on prayer by making use of the following verse from the Qur’an, which shows the paramount importance of prayer.

Say (O Muhammad, unto the unbelievers): My Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer. (Furqan 25:77)

In the Islamic tradition, prayer is considered the most significant and mysterious means of relationship between humans and the Creator. Nursi considers prayer as the spirit of servanthood. Accordingly, all creatures in their own tongues pray to God, both consciously and unconsciously. Humans, angels, and the jinn (invisible creatures that are parallel to humans) all pray to God. Nursi divides prayer, basically, into four types.

The first type of prayer is a prayer through the language of capacity. This is the prayer of all kinds of seeds and grains. They pray to the Lord through the language of their capability by saying the following:

O Lord, grow us to express the beauty of Your names in a detailed manner. Change our small reality to the reality of a big tree.

Another aspect of this first type of prayer is through the relationship between cause and effect. Causes come together to bring about the result or the effect, and this is considered a prayer. The interconnectedness of the two forms a prayer. Causes, by their collective language, ask the Most Powerful Lord for the result. For example, water, air, earth, and fire come together through their collective language and ask the Lord to make a certain seed a tree or a plant. The cooperation of causes to create a result is a prayer. Because the result is so wonderfully organized and prepared, there cannot be the effect of unconscious causes in reality.

The second type of prayer is through the language of natural need. This is the prayer of all living creatures who receive their needs and their wishes in an unexpected way at an appropriate time, with no delay or interruption. According to the Islamic tradition, one of the ninety-nine names of God is the Most Compassionate. Creatures are unable to provide their needs if it is not provided by the Most Compassionate Creator. Therefore, utmost necessity is their prayer to the Lord. That means this is a mercy from the Lord as a result of this prayer. All living creatures are included in this category. For example, a fish in the dark of the sea will receive its sustenance. A bird receives its sustenance in an appropriate way. Humans receive their sustenance at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way. And all receive the most expensive one in the cheapest way. For example, humans breathe air, which is the most important thing, for free. The universe is prepared and given to humans according to their needs. There is an amazing relationship between the capacity of the human eye and sunlight. This is a prayer through the language of the natural needs of creatures. Therefore, Nursi says, “There is a constant prayer rising to the court of the Divine from the entire universe.”

third type of prayer is through the language of desperation. Every living creature in the time of extreme anxiety needs a safe haven. Through a desperate prayer, this refuge becomes its unknown protector and as a result “it faces toward the Most Merciful.”

The fourth type of prayer is the prayer of humans. It is divided into two parts. The first part is through the language of human efforts for their utmost needs. All efforts of scientists for the benefit of humanity are considered to be prayers and, therefore, are rewarded by God. For example, the scientific discoveries and technological advances of all times are a direct result of this collective prayer of scientists.

The second part is the common prayer that we know. This also has two types, according to Nursi’s understanding. The first type is called prayer through action. The second type is prayer through words. Both are necessary for achievement. For example, to farm, to sow seeds, is a prayer to God to receive a plentiful harvest. This is a prayer through action. Therefore, the person who farms does not expect his sustenance from the soil, but he thinks that the soil is a door to the mercy of the Creator. Through farming, people knock at this door to request their sustenance from the Lord. In Islam, the prayer through action is very significant and is often misunderstood. Prayer through words, if related to an action, has to accompany the prayer through action as well. If a student prays to the Lord and asks for a good grade instead of working and studying hard, this is fruitless. Instead, the student must work hard, study, and pray to the Lord for a good result. Therefore, whatever action is necessary for a good result must be used in conjunction with a prayer through words.

Prayer through words is the most common prayer amongst people. The Qur’an, the Holy Book of Islam, teaches Muslims how to supplicate and communicate with God by showing examples of this type of prayer. Believers use this type of prayer to turn to the Eternal, Merciful, and Compassionate God. The Qur’an describes such believers and their attribute of the essential element of humility in the following verse:

Call on your Lord humbly and secretly; surely He does not love those who exceed the limits… call on Him fearing and hoping; surely the mercy of God is nigh to those who do good. (A’raf 7:55-56)

Another Qur’anic verse suggests that God is close, and He accepts the prayer of His servants:

(O Muhammad) when My servants ask you concerning Me, then surely I am very near; I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me, so they should answer My call and believe in Me that they may walk in the right way. (Baqara 2:186)

The Qur’an suggests that every prayer is answered. Therefore, no one returns empty-handed from His court, because in Islamic perspective, when people pray, they ask the One who can meet all of their needs, just as they would complain to a doctor who can heal all illnesses. When people pray to God, their mind, intelligence, and senses must be in a receptive state, in a state that they know surely that their prayer is heard.

Nursi brings to mind that in addition to being sincere while praying, believers should search for favored moments and seconds during which prayer is accepted. For example, the Holy Month of Ramadan and the Holy Days and Nights are important times for prayer. The Qur’an speaks of some Holy Days and Nights. One of them is called the Night of Power (Qadr), in which the Holy Qur’an was revealed. Another example is Friday, which is considered a Holy Day. Believers are expected to make full use of these moments. These are the times when divine blessings pour forth.

The Qur’anic way of prayer is to glorify God first, as it is presented in the first chapter of the Qur’an, “Praise be to the Lord of the Universe.” In the middle of the chapter, the suppliant asks their Lord for guidance to the right path.

Nursi advises that the prophetic and the Qur’anic formats of prayer are the closest to acceptance. In the second chapter, the Qur’an teaches humans what to ask from God. It says, “Our Lord, grant us good in this world and good in the hereafter” (Baqara 2:201). The second chapter also shows people how to pray when they face difficult conditions. “Our Lord, pour down upon us patience. Make our steps firm . . . .” The chapter ends with the following prayer:

Our Lord, do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord, do not lay on us a burden as You did on those before us. Our Lord, do not impose upon us that which we have not the strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us and have mercy upon us. You are our protector. Give us victory over the unbelieving people.

The third chapter of the Qur’an reminds believers of a very significant prayer:

Our Lord, do not let our hearts deviate now after You have guided us. Grant us mercy from Your presence, for You are the granter of bounties without measure.

After a few verses, the chapter mentions the prayers of the pious:

“Our Lord, we have indeed believed. Forgive us our sins and save us from the agony of the Fire.

These verses draw our attention to the prayer of Jesus’ apostles:

Our Lord, we believe in what You have revealed, and we follow the Messenger. So write us down with those who bear witness. (Al Imran 3:53)

Toward the end of this chapter, there is a wish for a good end:

Our Lord, lo we have heard a cry calling unto faith. “Believe in your Lord.” So we believed. Our Lord, therefore, forgive our sins. Blot out all our evil deeds, and make us die the death of the righteous. (Al Imran 3:193)

The Qur’an essentially suggests that prayer and humble supplications lead to salvation in this life and also in the afterlife. Therefore, the Prophet of Islam, whose life was in total compliance with the Qur’anic ideal, is known as the Sultan of Prayer. He would open hands, turn to his Lord, overflow with thanks and glorification, bow and double himself up in prayer, and constantly pray to God. He did this throughout his life. He woke up every morning and performed his daily prayers, including prescribed and voluntary prayers. He would stay in God’s presence at night and spend most of his night in prayer. He would continue his prayer even while eating, going to bed, traveling, returning from a campaign, confronting an enemy, experiencing worldly or heavenly disasters, witnessing miraculous events, and suffering from illnesses or troubles. There are specific books dedicated to the Prophet’s prayers, which give more details about all of his supplications. For every occasion, the prophet used to say a special prayer. These prayers began to be used by Muslims and have continued throughout the history of Islam.

Nursi answers a question about the acceptance of prayer. The question is as follows: “We have prayed many times, but it seems like it is not accepted. Does this conflict with the general idea of the Qur’an, which suggests that every prayer is answered?” Answering this question, Nursi says the following: “To answer the prayer and to accept the prayer as we wish are different. God answers all prayers, but sometimes, He gives what He wants, not what we want. This is like someone who asks a doctor to look at them, and the doctor asks them what they want. They ask to be given medicine that tastes good, but the doctor, who knows the nature of their illness, sometimes does not give them what they want. What he gives them is something better for them than what they want, although it may not be as tasty.” 1

According to Islamic belief, all prayers are answered by God. Muslim theologians give this example: A person prays to God to give him a son, but God does not give him a son, He gives him a daughter like Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This does not mean that his prayer has not been answered; it has just been answered in a better way because a regular son cannot be compared to Mary.

According to Nursi, Muslims have to be conscious that prayer is a sign of servanthood. It has to be done, not for the sake of result, but for the sake of prayer. For example, in the time of drought, Muslims are expected to pray to God for rain because it is the time of prayer, just as the sunset is the time for the sunset prayer. Even when God’s cosmic work has already been astronomically predicted, in the form of lunar and solar eclipses, Muslims are expected to pray because it is the time of prayer. This prayer is not for a resolution, but instead they pray to God, who has shown His Majesty through such cosmic events. Natural disasters and calamities are also times for prayer. If these calamities are lifted through their prayer, this is wonderful, but if they are not lifted, Muslims are expected to continue prayer because the time of prayer has not yet passed.

In conclusion, Islam accepts that humans are weak and poor before God, and they need constant prayer to fulfill their achievements and to meet their needs. Nursi states that prayer is an inexhaustible treasure for the human spirit whose needs are not limited. Through prayer, humans, being the supervisors over all creatures in this universe, represent both their prayers and the prayers of all other creatures to the Creator. All believers collectively say, as it is indicated in the Qur’an, “You, O Lord, alone we ask for help.” Through prayer, the human spirit feels that there is someone that can hear its wishes, solve all problems, and meet all needs, which gives it utmost strength.

Footnote

1. Nursi, S., The Words, Kaynak A.S., Izmir, 1997 Twenty-third Word, pp. 412-415

Such sceneries are very common now in many houses and internet cafes. Children and youth are spending most of their times playing computer games. While parents favor computers as necessities of modern age and as assistants for their children’s homework, children mostly consider them as toy boxes. They initially start with innocent intentions, but in time they lose their original purpose. “Uncontrolled use of computers,” the common problem of many parents, is also a matter very difficult to solve for the experts.

How do computer games affect the children’s subconscious and their future lives? Do games with positive effects have an appealing presentation?

Computer games can be grouped under two categories. First are the games that help developing talents, understanding the life experiments and ethical values by using an entertaining method; Second are the games that do not contribute anything to the child’s imagination and thinking abilities and inciting violent and immoral behavior. For the game to positively affect the child’s intellectual, physical and spiritual development depends upon both the content and the duration of the game. This period of playing time should neither be too short, nor too long. To be able to obtain a proper balance in this matter, we should first equip the child with an education of using the time wisely. Children wasting their time for useless activities, can also be insensitive to effective use of time when they grow up. Concisely, children must acquire the consciousness of valuing time. Wasted time in front of computers cause children and youth to get passive. This increases the stress experienced by the children. Especially in active boys, this inactiveness causes an energy accumulation which negatively affects the child’s behaviors. The use of excessive energy by ways of different sports is very useful for the physical and mental development and raising of a social conscious. Moreover, spending time in front of computers, deprives children and youth from cultural activities like playing group games, studying together and engaging with a sports activity.

Many of us complain that our children cannot express themselves properly and are not clear at communicating with their environment. When we ask a question to our child, either we get a very brief or a routine answer. Times elapsed aimlessly in front of computers have a significant effect on this.

We see that violence increase in each level of any new computer game. The game producers consider every type of method as permissible just to be able to attract children to the screen. Scenes which are not suitable for the age form the subconscious of a child. Children who have been exposed to several violent scenes are mostly inclined to aggression, anxiety and panic and they are generally furious and quick-tempered and consider violence as an ordinary matter. Reactions of children who watch violent films and play fierce and crimson computer games change in time and start applying more and more force to people and children around them. They tend to hit and kick others even after a slight disagreement. Being affected from destructive violent scenes, children reveal problems like over anxiety, sleep disturbances and behavioral disorders. Since the causes and effects of behaviors affected by the five senses are not questioned so much in pre-school children, abnormalities mentioned earlier can be seen more on them. We can give these as example: “A three year old child who watched violent films, applied what he watched on TV and stabbed and killed his little brother with a knife. Another child who thought himself to be a pokemon (a cartoon character), threw himself from the seventh floor with the intention of flying. And another child in France who could not win any computer games became epileptic because of having too frequent and excessive anger fits due to the unsuccessful playing sessions.” Unfortunately we often hear such news. In order to illuminate the subconscious of our children with beauties, favors, affection, and altruism, we should offer them alternative useful and educational games.

Harmful games also prevent children to learn their own culture, thus cause a cultural corrosion. Such games take our children to a world of weird clothes and hairstyles, weapons being the accessories. In this virtual world, no values exist except for “might is right.” Furthermore, in most of these games Islam is shown as a boogeyman and Muslims are shown as terrorists deserved to be killed. Children who are seized by the computer games become alienated to their environment. Having difficulty to make friends around them, children become enslaved by the computer and isolate themselves from the society. The only friend of the child is the computer, and in spite of elapsing the time, child still feels great loneliness inside. Hence, parents should provide suitable activities for their children and reasonably arrange the time spent for computer games.

Many bad characters shown on computer games also have perverse effects upon the child’s personal development. It is definite that messages given by these games like being strong and unchallengeable, inconsideration of other people’s lives, killing for the sake of living, disdaining ethical values, despising other people’s feelings, disrespecting the person addressed, categorizing the people, negatively affect the child’s personal development. Such games also impose unfavorable impacts upon learning abilities and awareness of the child. Scenes that are rapidly changing on computer screen distract the child greatly, make him confused and disturb his mind. This triggers a difficulty in concentrating when learning. Besides, excessive light changes may cause epileptic fits for some children.

Conclusively, computer games inspire children that the life is only a game and lead children to think too much about the characters in the game and mentally and physically to be with them all the time. Children playing too much computer games, carry the same concepts in the game to their relations with their family and friends, cause the child to confuse between the reality and imagination and eventually, the time spent together decreases and unsocial behaviors settle in the child’s personality.

Surely, we cannot underestimate the beneficial sides of the computer which is a must in modern age. But the ideal is to benefit from the positive services of the computer and to ensure a protection against its harmful usage. The playing time which is essential for the child’s healthy growth, should be distributed fairly between virtual games and real group games. For this, we must prefer games;

• in which they can play an active role,

• that are suggested by specialists and other experts,

• which can provide national awareness and cultural identity,

• which support comprehension and intelligence of the child,

• which contribute to virtues like sharing, team spirit, caring for others, honesty, and diligence,

• which instigate curiosity and make learning fun,

• which include parents into the game,

• which infuse consciousness of performing duties and responsibility,

• which help developing imagination, thinking ability, exploring and inventing capability.

If eyes, ears and other organs that are bestowed upon us by the All-Compassionate Creator are engaged with only entertaining computer games, then they are being used out of their innate purposes. Therefore, the vital responsibility of parents is to be very careful for guiding their children to use their sight, hearing, feeling, judging faculties in the right direction and to prepare an environment that provides the child a rich learning background and to bloom his mental abilities.

Said Nursi, also known as “Bediuzzaman” or “the wonder of the age” by his contemporaries, was born in eastern Anatolia (modern Turkey) in a turbulent era towards the end of the nineteenth century.¹ The Ottoman state was struggling to keep up with advances in science, technology, industry, and economy. After centuries of super-power status, Ottomans were deep in decline. The Muslim world was under continuous attack by the European powers on many fronts: economic, cultural, and military. People were questioning their beliefs and values in search of an explanation for their predicament. Most people were pessimistic and skeptical of their cultural inheritance. Under these circumstances, Bediuz¬zaman was a lighthouse of faith, hope and activism. Bediuzzaman was very far-sighted in his assessment of the conditions surrounding him, and in identifying solutions to the problems he encountered. His noteworthy stands include his championing of democratization, republicanism, the marriage of natural sciences and theology, and his advocacy for dialog with people of other faiths.

Backbiting the Dog

Backbiting, or talking negatively behind a person’s back, is considered one of the major sins in Islam. In an incident involving his students and a dog, Bediuzzaman used this term to discourage his students from talking negatively about a dog. The incident happened as follows:

One day a dog found a piece of meat that was hidden in a container to keep it cool. The dog ate the meat and when it could not get its head out of the container, it broke the container. Upon discovering this, some of Bediuzzaman’s students made a plan to trick the dog to bring it back and punish it. When he learned about the incident and the plan, Bediuzzaman questioned the student who attempted to punish the dog: “Tell me honestly, if you were extremely hungry and you find a piece of food in the open, wouldn’t you eat it?”

His student replied: “Indeed I would.”

Bediuzzaman: “And you are an intelligent being. Now realize that this is a dog. It does not have the intelligence that you have. It cannot realize that the food belongs to somebody. Can it be blamed for eating it?”

Student: “No.”

Bediuzzaman: “Then stop trying to punish this creature and do not backbite it (i.e. do not speak negatively behind its back).” It is noteworthy that he used the term “backbiting” to prohibit talking negatively about a dog, while this term is normally reserved for humans.

Killing of a Lizard

One day, after a long lesson, Bediuzzaman let his students go out and refresh themselves for a while. The students went out to the nearby plains to walk and relax. Upon their return, Bediuzzaman asked them what they had done. One of the students said that he had killed a lizard. Upon hearing this Bediuzzaman was visibly sad and told his student in a mournful tone: “You have demolished your house.”

Student: “The people of my hometown believe that killing seven lizards earns you as much reward as visiting the Ka’ba.”

Bediuzzaman: “All right then, sit here and let’s talk about this. We will try to find out who is right. First, let me ask you this: Did this animal attack you?”

Student: “No.”

Bediuzzaman: “Did it steal something from you?

Student: “No”

Bediuzzaman: “Do you provide sustenance for this animal?”

Student: “No.”

Bediuzzaman: “Was it passing through your land?”

Student: “No.”

Bediuzzaman: “Did you create it?”

Student: “No.”

Bediuzzaman: “Do you know the wisdom behind the creation of these animals? Do you know their functions in nature?”

Student: … (Silence)

Bediuzzaman: “Did the Great Lord create this animal for you to kill? Who told you to kill it? There are numerous functions these animals fulfill. You have indeed committed a great mistake by killing it.”

The House of Ants

Bediuzzaman was teaching his students near the city of Van. In summer, they used to climb Mount Erek near the city and do their studying there in order to avoid the excessive heat around the city. After a summer spent on the high plains, the fall was beginning and the weather was getting colder. They thought of building a place to take refuge before it got very cold and it snowed. Upon the suggestion of Bediuzzaman they decided to dig something like a cave or room into a hill and make a hole to serve as a window. The students started digging.

After a while they saw ants coming out of the place where they were digging. Bediuzzaman immediately told them to stop. One of the students responded:

Student: “Why should we stop? We have dug quite a bit. We will be done shortly.”

Bediuzzaman: “No. We cannot demolish a home in order make a home. Search for another spot.”

They changed their digging place three times before settling on a place where there were no ants, and they built their sanctuary.

Mr Ox

Bediuzzaman was being sent into exile based on charges that he was involved in an uprising in an eastern province. It was known by people around him that he had, instead, tried to stop the rebelling leaders from taking arms against the government. But this did not stop the government from sending him to exile. He was transported by a difficult path to the port city of Trabzon from his home city of Van in eastern Turkey. It was winter and everything was covered with snow and ice. It was the month of Ramadan. Bediuzzaman was one of the few people in the group who was able to continue his fasting under difficult conditions.

On the snowy road over the mountains, they were riding a wagon pulled by oxen. At one point, a leg of one of the oxen got hurt by rocks on the road and began bleeding. Bediuzzaman quickly noticed it and told his companions:

Bediuzzaman: “My friends! Let’s get off and walk. The leg of Mr Ox is bleeding.”

His companions looked at Bediuzzaman’s face with astonishment: “But we have paid the owners of these oxen!”

Bediuzzaman was unshaken in his stance. He jumped off the wagon himself first and said: “They are not owners of these oxen, only users or managers. Only God is the true owner. Have pity for the animals and get off the wagon.”

They all jumped off to the relief of the oxen.

Encounter with the Wolf

During their stay on Mount Erek near the city of Van, he asked his student named Molla Hamid to go down in a valley and get water from a creek. The creek was a place frequented by wild animals. Molla Hamid was visibly reluctant. He said: “Sir, I am reluctant to go… I am afraid.”

Bediuzzaman: “What are you afraid of?”

Molla Hamid: “Sir, there are all kinds of wild animals that roam around the creek. I am afraid one of them might attack me.”

Bediuzzaman: “Go. Do not be afraid. Nothing will happen.”

Molla Hamid reluctantly accepted and went to the creek. He came back with a bucket of water. Bediuzzaman asked: “What did you see?”

Molla Hamid: “Nothing sir.”

Bediuzzaman: “One should have some courage. Let me tell you a recent experience of mine. A few days ago I woke up in the middle of the night and I was putting on my clothes. An animal entered through the door. At first I thought it was a dog. It began to approach me. Then I realized that it was a wolf. Then I began to think what its intention might be. Then the wolf came right over to me and started to look at me. And I looked at it in return. We looked at each other like this for roughly half an hour. Then it simply turned and left. I interpreted his look in this way: It was as if it were trying to tell me ‘I stood with you for so long and you did not offer me anything to eat. I will not rely on your generosity. I will seek my sustenance from my Lord.’”

Then Bediuzzaman continued: “As you see we do not have any weapons. If these animals were not under the control of God, they could have easily attacked and ravaged us. But they did not. So, do not be afraid. Every single thing moves under the command of our Lord.”

These are a few incidents from the life of a prominent scholar of Islam and a contemporary student of a timeless teacher, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. Love of animals was manifest in a number of stories narrated to us by the Companions of God’s Messenger and related through books of Prophetic Tradition. Let us have a look at some examples:

The Crying Camel

A Companion of the Prophet, Abdullah ibn Ja’far relates the following incident:

“The Messenger of God went to a garden in Madina with a few Companions. A very scrawny camel was in a corner. Seeing the Messenger of God, it began to cry. He went near the camel, and after staying beside it for a while, he severely warned the owner to feed it properly.”²

Earning Paradise through Kindness to a Dog

It is related in the prophetic tradition that the Prophet said: “A prostitute was guided to truth by God and ultimately went to Paradise because she gave water to a dog dying of thirst. Another woman was sent to Hell because she left a cat to die of hunger.”³

The Screaming Mother Bird

While returning from a military campaign, a few companions removed some young birds from their nest to stroke them. The mother bird came back, and not finding its babies, began to fly around screeching. When told of this, the Messenger became angry and ordered the birds to be put back in the nest.⁴

These stories illustrate the overflowing love and appreciation of creation that is a manifestation of the divine love our Creator and Sustainer for us.

Footnotes

1. Weld, M., Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Sozler Publications, 1992.
2. Gulen, M. F., Prophet Muhammad: Aspects of His Life, Fountain Publications, VA, 2000.
3. Bukhari 4. 538; 3.553
4. Hadith Encyclopedia, Harf Information Technology, Cairo, 1996.

A tooth is created with four main layers: enamel, dentine, pulp chamber and cementum (the thin layer where the tooth attaches to the jaw). The hardest tissue of the body, the enamel is the protective, outermost layer of the tooth. Since it does not contain any living matter such as veins or nerves, we are not affected by hot, cold, sweet or sour stimulants via the tooth. If the Owner of an Everlasting Might and Compassion had not created the enamel of the tooth, which He placed at the entrance of the digestion room in the human palace, as he did, the variety of food we would eat would be very limited. Even slight contact with air would cause us great discomfort, and speaking or even opening our mouth would give us great pain.

The dentine, the hard layer just below the enamel, is a tissue sensitive to hot, cold, sweet and sour stimulants. As a reflection of the Creator’s Affection for His Creation, the dentine tissue is repaired when necessary by the restoring cells that he placed there.

The most inner part of the tooth is the organic part called the pulp chamber, which is filled with veins to protect the tooth from decay and feed it with necessary nutrients. Nerve cells in the soft pulp tissue play the greatest role in sensing the stimulants of heat, cold and pressure.

If we examine the anatomical structure of a tooth in detail, only then can we clearly see how it is perfectly equipped with wondrous and intelligent structures. However, are we really conscious of the duties of our teeth, placed in our jaws like pearls, in protecting our general health?

One of the main entrances to our bodies for microbes is the mouth. Because of this, maintaining healthy teeth and a clean mouth is very important in preventing diseases and maintaining a healthy life. When the mouth is not kept hygienic, a suitable environment is formed for the emergence of even very feeble microbes. In an unhygienic mouth, food residue accumulates and forms a bacterial plaque on the teeth. Using the glucose in this plaque, these bacteria produce acids. It is this acid that causes tooth decay and gum diseases.

Are we adequately informed about dental health and hygiene, a very important concept in preventive medicine? That Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, emphasized the importance of cleaning the mouth and teeth whenever one does his/her ablution and after every meal, grants a profundity of worship to God by keeping our teeth healthy.

Importance of Milk Teeth

Milk teeth start to appear in a baby’s gums after about the sixth month of age. The appearance of milk teeth differs from baby to baby according to factors like genetics, birth weight, socio-economics and nourishment level. By cutting a group of teeth every six months, all of the milk teeth appear by the age of 30 months. Between the 6th and 12th months the first incisors, between the 12th and 18th months the first molars, between the 18th and 24th months the first canines and between the 24th and 30th months the second molars erupt. Since the dentine tissue is not fully developed in this period, milk teeth are not at all resistant to decay. Since the pulp chamber is very soft and packed with blood vessels, it is very vulnerable to decay. Sucking fingers, excessive use of a pacifier, sucking or biting lips and gritting teeth all negatively affect the development of milk teeth. During the eruption of milk teeth, babies may have discomfort like itching gums, a need to bite something, excessive saliva secretion, watery eyes, lack of appetite, loss of weight, fever, bad temper and crying. In order to relieve these discomforts, the baby may be given something to chew on to relieve the pressure on the gums, and some cold drinks and cold food to soothe the pain.

As nothing in creation occurs devoid of wisdom, one may ask “What benefits are there after the discomforts when a baby’s milk teeth are coming in?” In other words, why are the milk teeth so important? Most of us do not give them enough care, because we think of them as temporary. The space occupied by the milk teeth is saved for the permanent teeth, and when the permanent tooth starts erupting, the milk tooth guides it into its proper place. If milk teeth are extracted too early, this alignment and spacing function of milk teeth cannot be performed, hence the permanent teeth may erupt in an improper way. Moreover, milk teeth provide proper chewing and correct vocal speech for the baby. When a baby develops unhealthy milk teeth, this may cause problems like poor facial appearance, and therefore some psychological disorders in the future. Untreated defects of milk teeth can cause pain, bad breath, difficulty in chewing, disorders in jaw development, malnutrition, aesthetic and general health problems like rheumatism and heart diseases.

Protection of Milk Teeth

Since tooth decay in babies’ teeth is very difficult to treat, preventive measures are much more important in looking after the milk teeth. Some of these measures are as follows;

• A baby must not allowed to sleep with A milk bottle in her/his mouth,

• Sugar, honey or any other sugary substance must never be added to baby’s milk,

• Baby must be given water after every feeding,

• After baby’s first teeth erupt, after every morning and evening meal, his teeth must be wiped with a soft, wet, clean towel,

• Give a soft learning toothbrush to the baby to play with.

A child must start using a toothbrush after his molars erupt, at the age of 2.5 to 3 years old. The size of the toothbrush should be suitable to the child’s mouth. It should be soft and made of nylon. Children can only brush the front of their teeth. Since the space between the teeth should also be cleaned to provide a shield against decay, parents should supervise their children when brushing their teeth. At this age, a child cannot brush his/her teeth properly, but the main aim to be achieved is for him/her to get into the habit of brushing teeth. Toothpaste may start to be used for the child after the age of three. We must not forget that the important thing for oral hygiene is not the toothpaste itself, but brushing the teeth properly and thoroughly. If these measures are not taken, or if it is already too late, any disorder in the milk teeth must be treated immediately without making the mistake of thinking the milk teeth will be replaced anyway.

Permanent Teeth

The first permanent teeth are the first big molars, which erupt when the child is about six years old. Between ages 7 and 9, the lower and upper incisors, between ages 9 and 10, the lower canines, between 10 and 12, the first and second small molars, between 11 and 12, the upper canines, between 12 and 13, the second big molars, and finally, between 17 and 21, the wisdom teeth, the third molars erupt. During the eruption of permanent teeth, some problems like distorted development may occur. Genetic factors, early loss of milk teeth, breathing disorders, untreated cavities between milk teeth and a mismatch of jaw and tooth sizes, may cause irregular development of teeth. The dental treatment practiced for aligning such irregular teeth is called ‘orthodontic treatment.’ Since irregularities of teeth form spaces suitable for the accumulation of food residue which allows microorganisms to increase and then leads to decay, orthodontic treatment should be done before the permanent teeth are firmly positioned. Irregular teeth may cause jaw-aches because of abnormal interlacing of upper and lower teeth.

There are different thoughts about whether the wisdom teeth should be pulled out or not. Wisdom teeth are placed at the furthest back part of the jaw curvature. This part of the mouth is very suitable for food residue and microorganisms to accumulate. Because of this, wisdom teeth are very vulnerable to decay. In addition, any decay in these teeth may also affect the adjacent molars. If a positive result will not be achieved from treatment, these teeth can then be pulled out. However, if the wisdom teeth will erupt correctly into their places and do not negatively affect the surrounding tissues, and if there is sufficient space for them in the jaws, it is definitely beneficial for them to stay.

Another tooth problem that seems to concern today’s aesthetic conscious individuals is the color of teeth. However, tooth color is completely a personal phenomenon, like eye or skin color. But still, we must know that some external factors, like tea, coffee, smoking, feeding habits and tooth injuries, and some internal factors, like genetic attributes and aging, may also affect the color of the teeth.

What should we do to obtain Dental Health?

Mouth and tooth hygiene is an important issue that was emphasized strongly by Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and the most effective method he used was brushing the teeth. However, after eating acidic foods or drinking acidic drinks like fruit juice, fruits, soft drinks or fizzy drinks, you should wait for about 30 minutes, because the dental enamel will be softer and more sensitive just after consuming such foods and drinks and if you brush straightaway, you may rub the acid into the enamel tissue of your teeth. You can clean the residues of acidic foods and drinks by rinsing your mouth with water or a fluoride based mouth rinse.

Having a healthy mouth and teeth mainly depends upon applying a good brushing technique to the teeth and gums. By applying the brush in a circular manner, you should always start brushing the gums towards the teeth, then the outer surfaces and finish with all inner surfaces. You must avoid damaging the masticator surfaces by applying too much force. Brushing the teeth twice a day at least is necessary to prevent the formation of bacterium plaque.

In order to achieve ideal hygiene for your teeth, you should also use dental floss for cleaning between the teeth. This will help to clean places where a brush cannot reach and thus prevent dental plaque. Also, special mouth rinses may be used in order to provide an effective general cleanliness.

Toothpicks can also be used between the teeth. While they are cheaper, they cannot provide a hygiene as comprehensive as dental floss, since they are thicker than floss. When using toothpicks, you should choose those with blunted tips to prevent any inflammation of the gums. Food residue that has stayed too long between the teeth should not be swallowed, since large amount of harmful microorganisms may grow on it.

In elderly people, due to a lack of sufficient calcium, disorders like gum retraction and wobbly teeth may occur. For people who have lost their teeth completely, because of osteolysis of the lower jaw, dental prostheses may not fit properly in the jaw. During this time of life, extra calcium intake should be provided by following a calcium-rich diet.

With age, the amount of calcium also decreases in the body. In relation to this situation, teeth also become more fragile. Using the teeth to break open nuts may cause cracks that cannot be seen with the eye, which may later cause fractures in the teeth. Therefore, we must never use our teeth to break hard foods, such as nuts, at any age, and we must be careful about breaking teeth, especially during old age.

Ants and Ecosystem³

The abundance of ants on earth is legendary. They live almost everywhere except very cold places such as Antarctica and Greenland. A worker is less than one-millionth the size of a human being, yet ants taken collectively rival people as dominant organisms on the land. Lean against a tree almost anywhere and the first creature that crawls on you will probably be an ant. Stroll down a suburban sidewalk with your eyes fixed on the ground, counting the different kinds of animals you see. The ants will win hands down. The British entomologist⁴ C. B. Williams once calculated that the number of insects alive on earth at a given moment is one million trillion, 1018. If, to take a conservative figure, one percent of this host is ants, their total population is ten thousand trillion. Individual workers weigh on average between one to five milligrams, according to the species. When combined, all ants in the world taken together weigh about as much as all human beings. But being so finely divided into tiny individuals, this biomass⁵ saturates the terrestrial environment.⁶

Ants absolutely dominate in rainforests, which are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. Rainforests are so diverse that in a single leguminous tree (a relative to beans and peas) in Peru, 43 species of ants belonging to 26 genera⁷ were found, about equal to the ant fauna⁸ of the British Isles. In a single square mile of tropical forest in Peru or Brazil, there may be 1,500 or more species of butterflies-twice the total number found in the United States and Canada combined.⁹ In Amazon rainforests ants and termites together compose nearly a third of the animal biomass. In other words, when all kinds of animals, large and small, from jaguars to monkeys down to roundworms and mites, are weighed, nearly a third of the weight consists of the flesh of ants and termites.

All of the ants, composing in formal taxonomic classification the family Formicidae of the order Hymenoptera, contain about 9,500 species known to science and at least twice that number of species remaining to be discovered, most of which are confined to the tropics. The total number of species of social insects is about 13,500 out of a grand total of 750,000 insect species that have been recognized to date by biologists. These numbers show that social insects seem to constitute 2 percent of all insects yet, in terms of biomass, social insects are half or more of all insects. Why are ants and other social insects so successful in the terrestrial environment? Their strength comes from their social organization.¹⁰ In addition to the question of why ants and other highly social insect species have been so successful, it is also important to understand how such a large collection of individuals maintains order and collectively accomplishes tasks without producing chaos. With potentially thousands of individual ants to coordinate, how do they make decisions regarding who does what and when, especially critical decisions regarding reproduction?¹¹ These questions become even more intriguing when you realize that ants have quite limited sensory devices to experience the world. They also have relatively simple nervous systems that process only a limited number of stimuli and are aware of only a few minutes to a few hours into the past.¹²

What is Collective Intelligence?¹³

Intelligence can be defined simply as the ability to solve problems. One system is more intelligent than another system if in a given time interval it can solve more problems, or find better solutions to the same problems. A group can then be said to exhibit collective intelligence if it can find more or better solutions than the whole of all solutions that would be found by its members working individually.

All organizations, whether they are firms, institutions or sporting teams, are created on the assumption that their members can do more together than they could do alone. Yet, most organizations have a hierarchical structure, with one individual at the top directing the activities of the other individuals at the levels below. Although no president, chief executive or general can oversee or control all the tasks performed by different individuals in a complex organization, one might still suspect that the intelligence of the organization is somehow merely a reflection or extension of the intelligence of its hierarchical head. This is no longer the case in small, closely interacting groups such as soccer or football teams, where the “captain” rarely gives orders to the other team members. The movements and tactics that emerge during a soccer match are not controlled by a single individual, but result from complex sequences of interactions. Still, they are simple enough for an individual to comprehend, and since soccer players are intrinsically intelligent individuals, it may appear that the team is not really more intelligent than its members.

With the growing interest in complex adaptive systems, artificial life, swarms, and simulated societies, the concept of “collective intelligence” is coming more and more to the fore. The basic idea is that a group of individuals (e.g. people, insects, robots etc.) can be smart in a way that none of its members is. Complex, apparently intelligent behavior may emerge from the synergy created by simple interactions between individuals that follow simple rules.

How do ants succeed?

Now we have lots of questions to ask about the success of ants as a group. How do they govern? Who is the ruler? How do they foresee the future? How do they elaborate plans and preserve equilibrium? These, indeed, are puzzling questions. Every single ant in a colony seems to have its own agenda, and yet an insect colony looks so organized. The seamless integration of all individual activities does not seem to require a supervisor. For example, leaf-cutter ants cut leaves from plants and trees to grow fungi. Workers forage for leaves hundreds of meters away from the nest, literally organizing highways to and from their foraging sites. Weaver ant workers form chains of their own bodies, allowing them to cross wide gaps and pull stiff leaf edges together to form a nest. Several chains can join to form a bigger one over which workers run back and forth. In their moving phase, army ants organize impressive hunting raids, involving up to 200,000 workers, during which they collect thousands of prey.¹⁴

A harvester ant colony performs many tasks: It must collect and distribute food, build a nest, and care for the eggs, larvae, and pupae. It lives in a changing world to which it must respond. When there is a windfall of food, more foragers are needed. When the nest is damaged, extra effort is required for quick repairs. Task allocation is the process that results in certain workers engaged in specific tasks, in numbers appropriate to the current situation. Task allocation is a solution to a dynamic problem and thus it is a process of continual adjustment. It operates without any central or hierarchical control to direct individual ants into particular tasks. Although “queen” is a term that reminds us of human political systems, the queen is not an authority figure. She lays eggs and is fed and cared for by the workers. She does not decide which worker does what. In a harvester ant colony, many feet of intricate tunnels and chambers and thousands of ants separate the queen, surrounded by interior workers, from the ants working outside the nest and using only the chambers near the surface. It would be physically impossible for the queen to direct every worker’s decision about which task to perform and when. Consider the commercially available ant farms being sold. Since it’s forbidden to transfer ant queens, in the US ant farms are sold with only worker ants. Still they work in harmony. They build their nest, they build bridges, they collect food and they defend their colony. They do all these things without a queen. The absence of central control may seem counterintuitive, because we are accustomed to hierarchically organized social groups in many aspects of human societies, including universities, businesses, governments, orchestras and armies. This mystery underlies the ancient and pervading fascination of social insect colonies.

No ant is able to assess the global needs of the colony, or to count how many workers are engaged in each task and decide how many should be allocated differently. The capacity of an individual is limited. It cannot make complicated assessments. It probably cannot remember anything for very long. Its behavior is based on what it perceives in its immediate environment. Each worker needs to make only fairly simple decisions. There is abundant evidence, throughout physics, the social sciences and biology that such simple behavior by individuals can lead to predictable patterns in the behavior of the group. It should be possible to explain task allocation in a similar way, as the consequence of simple decisions by individuals.

Though ant colonies must respond to changing conditions, the response does not have to be perfect. It is not like clockwork, or an army, each unit snapping into place so the whole system ticks on without a hitch. There must be enough ants to collect food, often enough for the colony to survive and grow. The appropriate range of numbers should be allocated over a set of similar occasions. If the colony did not get enough food today, perhaps it will tomorrow. The process results in more or less the right number of ants engaged in the appropriate task, often enough for the colony to carry on.

Maximizing the number of ants that perform each task may not always be best for the colony. A task allocation problem for a human city is how to get the right number of firefighters to the scene of a fire. It may be a waste to have too many firefighters on the city payroll. Too many ants allocated to each task may be expensive for a colony if the excess ants could be doing something more useful than waiting around when they are not needed.

The most difficult thing to grasp about task allocation is that it is not a deterministic process even at the individual level. An ant does not respond the same way every time to the same stimulus; nor do colonies. Some events influence the probabilities that certain ants will perform certain tasks, and this regularity leads to predictable tendencies rather than perfectly deterministic outcomes. The ant is jostled in a stream of events that send it sometimes into one task, sometimes another. Task allocation is not a system in which each ant awaits the crucial event that defines its status forever. Like a twig in a turbulent river, an ant may tend to go in one direction, but there are many places it could get washed ashore, to be picked up and then swept in another direction altogether.

Stories about totalitarian societies, inexorable armies, and voracious monsters are often told as stories about ants. But ants have no dictators, no generals and no evil masterminds. In fact, there are no leaders at all.

In short, the basic mystery about ant colonies is that there is no management. A functioning organization with no one in charge is so unlike the way humans operate as to be virtually inconceivable. There is no central control. No insect issues commands to another or instructs it to do things in a certain way. No individual is aware of what must be done to complete any colony task. Each ant scratches and prods its way through the tiny world of its immediate surroundings. Ants meet each other, separate, go about their business. Somehow these small events create a pattern that drives the coordinated behavior of colonies.¹⁵

Elements of Collective Intelligence¹⁶

More is different. This old slogan of complexity theory actually has two meanings that are relevant to our ant colonies. First, the statistical nature of ant interaction demands that there is a critical mass of ants for the colony to make intelligent assessments of its global state. Ten ants roaming across the desert floor will not be able to accurately judge the overall need for foragers or nest-builders, but two thousand will do the job admirably. Individual ants do not know that they are prioritizing pathways between different food sources when they lay down a pheromone¹⁷ gradient near a pile of nutritious seeds. In fact, if we only studied individual ants in isolation, we’d have no way of knowing that those chemical secretions were part of an overall effort to create a mass distribution line, carrying comparatively huge quantities of food back to the nest. It is only by observing the entire system at work that the global behavior becomes apparent.

Ignorance is usually useful for ants. The simplicity of the ant language-and the relative stupidity of the individual ants-is, as the computer programmers say, a feature but not a bug. Emergent systems can grow unwieldy when their component parts become excessively complicated. Better to build a densely interconnected system with simple elements, and let the more sophisticated behavior trickle up. That is why an ant does not respond to all stimuli around her, namely she ignores until she decides that the stimulus is strong enough to be responded to.

Encourage random encounters. Decentralized systems such as ant colonies rely heavily on the random interactions of ants exploring a given space without any predefined orders. Their encounters with other ants are individually arbitrary, but because there are so many individuals in the system, those encounters eventually allow individuals to gauge and alter the state of the colony itself. Without those haphazard encounters, the colony would not be capable of stumbling across new food sources or of adapting to new environmental conditions.

Look for patterns in the signs. While the ants do not need an extensive vocabulary and are capable of syntactical formulations, they do rely heavily on patterns in the semiochemicals they detect. A gradient in a pheromone trail leads them toward a food source, while encountering a high ratio of nest-builders to foragers encourages them to switch tasks. This knack for pattern detection allows meta-information to circulate through the colony mind: signs about signs. Smelling the pheromones of a single forager ant means little, but smelling the pheromones of fifty foragers imparts information about the global state of the colony.

Pay attention to your neighbors. This may well be the most important lesson that the ants have to give us, and the one with the most far-reaching consequences. You can restate it as “Local information can lead to global wisdom.” The primary mechanism of swarm logic is the interaction between neighboring ants in the field: ants stumbling across each other, or each other’s pheromone trails, while patrolling the area around the nest. Adding ants to the overall system will generate more interactions between neighbors and will consequently enable the colony to solve problems and regulate itself more effectively. Without neighboring ants stumbling across one another, colonies would be just a senseless assemblage of individual organisms-a swarm without logic.

Conclusion

Ants, first of all, have something to teach us about how nature works. Any system whose behavior arises from the interactions of its components has something in common with ant colonies. Using ants and other social insects as models, computer scientists have developed software agents that cooperate to solve complex problems, such as the rerouting of traffic in a busy telecom network or internet. Another example, the famous traveling salesman problem, in which a salesman tries to find the shortest and fastest route between many cities, is almost impossible to solve definitively. But with the methods inspired by ants the problem can be solved at least approximately, because ants are very good at finding the shortest path between the food and the nest collectively. Collective robotics borrowed from collective intelligence in ant colonies is being used to manage systems composed of lots of robots in synchronization.

Nature is a book to be read by the people who approach it to live in harmony, not to dominate. We are not the owners of the beautiful things around us, but observers searching for signs which reveal the wisdom behind them.

Footnotes

1. Haskins C.P., Of Ants and Men, Prentice-Hall Inc., 1939.
2. Huxley J., Ants, AMS Press, 1969.
3. An ecosystem is a grouping of plants, animals, and other organisms interacting with each other and with the environment in such a way as to perpetuate the grouping more or less indefinitely.
4. The scientific discipline in which ants are studied is called myrmecology and it is one of the branches of the study of insects, entomology.
5. Biomass is the total weight of all living organisms in a biological environment.
6. Holldobler B. and Wilson E.O., Journey to the Ants, Harvard University Press, 1994.
7. The word Genera is the plural of genus. Genus is a taxonomic category ranking below a family and above a species and generally consisting of a group of species exhibiting similar characteristics.
8. Fauna (Flora) is the animals (plants) of a particular region or period, considered as a group.
9. http://www.savenature.org/images/pdfs/ecoandinsects.pdf
10. Holldobler and Wilson, ibid.
11. Bonabeau E., Dorigo M., and Theraulaz G., Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial System, Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Oxford University Press, NY:1999.
12. Holldobler and Wilson, ibid.
13. Heylighen, F. “Collective Intelligence and its Implementation on the Web: Algorithms to Develop a Collective Mental Map,” Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory. 1999, Vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 253-280.
14. Bonabeau et al, ibid.
15. Gordon D., Ants at Work, W. W. Norton. 1999.
16. Johnson S., Emergence Simon & Schuster. 2001.
17. The pheromone is the semiotic chemical ants use to communicate with each other and with other colonies. Every colony has its own odor. That is why ants can recognize their sisters from the same colony easily.

In constructivist classrooms, unlike the conventional lecturer, the teacher is a facilitator and a guide, who plans, organizes, guides, and provides directions to the learner, who is accountable for his own learning. The teacher supports the learner by means of suggestions that arise out of ordinary activities, by challenges that inspire creativity, and with projects that allow for independent thinking and new ways of learning information. Students work in groups to approach problems and challenges in real world situations, this in turn leads to the creation of practical solutions and a diverse variety of student products. Constructivist theories have found more popularity with the advent of personal computers in classrooms and homes. PCs provide individual students with tools to experiment and build their own learning at their own pace. With the use of the web, the learner can now conduct research, interact with diverse populations, share ideas, and work on group projects. The assessment tool in a constructivist classroom is not a test or a quiz, rather it is the learner product; most of the time this is in a portfolio format that has been designed by the learner.

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two eminent figures in the development of constructivist theories. They share the common belief that classrooms must be constructivist environments; however, there are differences in terms of their theories and variations as to how constructivism should be carried out in classrooms. 

Piaget’s Constructivism

Jean Piaget (1896-1980), remembered for his extensive research on developmental psychology, explains the learning process by schemes (the organization of information on how things work), assimilation (the placing of new information into schemes), and accommodation (transforming existing schemes or creating new ones). The motivation for learning is the predisposition of the learner to adapt to his environment, hence to institute equilibrium between schemes and the environment. Continuous interactions among existing schemes, assimilation, accommodation, and equilibrium create new learning.

Piaget explores four sequential stages of the psychological development of the young learner and believes teachers should be cognizant of these stages. During the Sensory-motor Stage, (before the age of 2) sensory experiences and motor activities dominate. Intelligence is intuitive in nature and knowledge; it is acquired through mental representation during the Preoperational Stage (from age 2 to age 7). At the Concrete Operational Stage (from age 7 to age 11), intelligence is logical, conserved, and dependent on concrete references. The Formal Operational Stage (after 11 years of age) is the stage when abstract thinking starts and the learner starts thinking about probabilities, associations, and analogies.

Piaget’s developmental theory of learning and constructivism are based on discovery. According to his constructivist theory, in order to provide an ideal learning environment, children should be allowed to construct knowledge that is meaningful for them. 

The Piagetian Classroom

Piaget believes that a constructivist classroom must provide a variety of activities to challenge students to accept individual differences, increase their readiness to learn, discover new ideas, and construct their own knowledge.

Videodisks, CD-ROMs and simulation software enhance learning, while telecommunication tools, like e-mail and the Internet, provide contexts for dialogue and interaction within the classroom, the schools, and the community leading to the social construction of knowledge. Students have the opportunity to be exposed to other ideas, cultures, and forums on global issues. Students can work on collaborative projects, which may come in the form of a networked writing project, or the building of separate phases of an engineering project that enables them to receive and give instant responses.

In an elementary Piagetian classroom, concrete learning experiences, such as drawing, drama, model building and field trips that involve hands-on opportunities to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell are essential. These early activities and the use of tangible manipulatives and visual aids serve as building blocks for more sophisticated tasks, such as reading comprehension.

Vygotsky’s Constructivism

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), known for his theory of social constructivism, believes that learning and development is a collaborative activity and that children are cognitively developed in the context of socialization and education. The perceptual, attention, and memory capacities of children are transformed by vital cognitive tools provided by culture, such as history, social context, traditions, language, and religion. For learning to occur, the child first makes contact with the social environment on an interpersonal level and then internalizes this experience. The earlier notions and new experiences influence the child, who then constructs new ideas. Vygotsky’s (1978, p. 56) example of being able to point a finger displays how this behavior, which begins as a simple motion, becomes a meaningful movement when others react to the gesture.

Vygotsky’s constructivism is known as social constructivism because of the significance of culture and social context. For Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development “. . . the distance between the actual development of a child as determined by the independent problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more peers (Vygotsky: 1978)” suggests that cognitive development is limited to a certain range at a particular age. However, with the help of social interaction, such as assistance from a mentor, students can comprehend concepts and schemes that they cannot know on their own. Curriculum specialists and lesson plan builders can use the zone of proximal development as a guiding reference.

The Vygotskian Classroom

A Vygotskian classroom emphasizes creating one’s own concepts and making knowledge one’s property; this requires that school learning takes place in a meaningful context, alongside the learning that occurs in the real world. As seen earlier in the Piagetian classroom, this model also promotes the active participation and collaboration of distinctive learners. The Vygotskian classroom stresses assisted discovery through teacher-student and student-student interaction. Some of the cognitive strategies that group members bring into the classroom are questioning, predicting, summarizing, and clarifying.

In a Vygotskian classroom, dynamic support and considerate guidance are provided based on the learner’s needs, but no will or force is dictated. Students are exposed to discussions, research collaborations, electronic information resources, and project groups that work on problem analysis.

Some examples of classroom activities that might be used in a constructive classroom are as follows:

Students in a political science class can use a computer simulation to decide on global issues as representatives of United Nations. A geography class studying Turkey can take a virtual trip of tourist and historical sites and parks. The journalism class may publish a newsletter with scanned photographs, excerpts from the press and charts about a recent journey to space. As a final project, a sixth-grade history teacher may assign her students multimedia presentations of civilizations that prospered in Southern America. An aquatic science class could observe data on city water quality and communicate with students in other schools. The multiculturalism class students can build online genograms (family trees), and subscribe to genogram databases in search for relatives and the origin of their roots. 

Conclusion

Both Piaget and Vygotsky appreciated the essence of building constructs and internalizing the knowledge given, rather than accepting the information as presented through rote-memory. Constructivist learning environments promote the learner to gather, filter, analyze, and reflect on the information provided and to comment on this knowledge so that it will result in individualized comprehension and private learning.

This type of group learning will reduce the dissemination of false data, prejudice, and atrocities among diverse groups and help build a moral, scientific, information society in the new millennium. Be it developmental or social as suggested by Piaget and Vygotsky respectively, learning is the central activity for humans in search for understanding the causes and effects of natural phenomena, the progress of social events, and the meaning of life. By using such learning approaches we can better introduce our children to the world that God has created for us, and lead them to think about the miracles that are all around us.